Breed Automotive Technology, Inc.

Joseph Patrick Harte

Alan George Smithson

David Blackadder

Kenneth Williamson

John Alexander Taylor

Paul Bowman

John Bell

Elizabeth Rees

Steve Marshall

Brian Edward Aiston

Darren Laidlaw

Peter Jungbauer

Gerrit Kooy

Nigel Mitchinson

A seat belt retractor has a frame with sidewalls and a rotatable spool extending between said sidewalls. The rotatable spool has seat belt webbing wound thereon. A locking pawl engages ratchet teeth on the outer periphery of the spool for arresting rotation of the spool. A secondary locking mechanism locks the spool against rotation.

Seat belt retractor

A spool for a seat belt retractor has a cylindrical member with a cylindrical central portion and two end plates at opposite axial ends of the cylindrical portion. There is a channel formed in the cylindrical central portion with an outer and an inner wall and defining a path for guiding seat belt webbing. The path circumscribes the spool axis substantially over the length of the central portion of the spool in a generally smooth curve. The path has a spool entry and a spool exit portion and an acute angle subtended at the spool axis by the entry portion of the path and the exit portion of the path is approximately 90&deg;. The spool may be hollow with a torsion bar forming the inner wall of the channel.

Spool for a seat belt retractor

A lockbar for a seatbelt retractor has an elongate joining member and two end pieces joined to the joining member at opposite ends therefore. The end pieces are made of a higher strength material than the joining member. The joining member may be made by extrusion and may be tubular or may be formed as a hollow member. The end pieces may be produced as forgings, die casting or plastic injection moldings or by other suitable methods. They can be produced from different materials and to different designs to suit the specification of the seatbelt retractor. Hence a single basic seatbelt retractor design can be employed for a variety of strength requirements by selecting appropriate end pieces and an appropriate joining member.

Lockbar for a seatbelt retractor

A seat belt retractor has a spool that is rotatable about an axis for receiving seat belt webbing. A locking means prevents rotation of the spool during a crash to prevent webbing payout. A load limiting means has a torsion bar extending through the spool and connected in a force path between the locking means and the webbing. One end of the torsion bar is attached to the spool, and the opposite end of the torsion bar is attached to a toothed wheel, wherein said opposite end of the torsion bar is connected to the toothed wheel in an axially adjustable manner.

A seat belt retractor spool has a spool body with opposed end flanges. A ratchet wheel is arranged on one end flange. A torsion bar is located in a bore in the spool body and is coupled to the ratchet wheel by means of a toothed portion at one end thereof. The other end of the torsion bar has a plurality of radial projections which cooperate with axial protrusions on the end flange to couple the bar,to the spool.

Seat belt retractor spool and torsion bar

A vehicle seat belt retractor has a frame, a spool rotatably mounted to the frame and a spool locking device for locking the spool against rotation. The spool locking device includes actuating means for actuating the locking device. The actuating means is a support carrying a mass and a pawl, the mass being arranged to move from an initial position to an actuating position to actuate the pawl into engagement with the ratchet on the spool. The actuating means is an adjustment mechanism for adjusting the distance between the pawl and the ratchet. The adjustment mechanism may adjust the support relative to a housing, and adjust the tip of the pawl relative to the pawl body or a deformable pawl tip.

Sensor for a seat belt retractor

A retractor for a vehicle safety restraint which comprises web locking wedges (,) which grip the seat belt webbing (,), under certain predetermined load conditions, so as to more securely restrain the vehicle occupant at the beginning of a crash pulse and which includes a load limiting arrangement so as to allow a limited and controlled pay out of webbing at the beginning of the crash pulse. The web locking retractor thus comprises a wedge (,) which has an inner gripping surface with a predetermined coefficient of friction relative to the seat belt webbing so that, at a predetermined loading, the webbing slips past the friction surface of the wedge. This may be achieved by using double thickness webbing along a predetermined portion of the seat belt, for example two layers of webbing, or coating the wedge or a part of the webbing with a material (,) which is erodible or deformable and which may be cut into or eroded by the friction surface of the wedge, or by teeth (,) on that surface. Alternatively or in addition, the wedge comprises a cylindrical drum shaped member of which the outer curved surface is the gripping surface, the drum having a torsion bar arranged along its axis fixed against rotation at one end to the wedge housing and fixed to the cylindrical wedge at a point spaced from the end.

Weblocker retractor

A seat belt retractor has a webbing spool fixed to a ratchet wheel having a plurality of teeth spaced about its circumference. A locking pawl has a plurality of teeth with a pitch less than the pitch of the teeth on the ratchet wheel. The pawl is arranged to pivot into engagement with the ratchet wheel, on activation of a crash sensor. Preferably there are two locking pawls and two toothed ratchet wheels. The two locking pawls may each have the same number of teeth or alternatively one may have an extra tooth which serves as a sensor tooth, engaging first with the spool ratchet wheel and phasing engagement of the other teeth as the load increases.

A seat belt retractor has a spool on which seat belt webbing is wound, arranged for rotation about its longitudinal axis, for payout and winding in of seat belt webbing. A torsion bar is coaxial with the spool and has one end fixed to the spool. A ratchet is fixed to the other end of the torsion bar and a toothed wheel is fixed to the spool to rotate with the spool. A pivoting lock bar extends across the length of the spool, having at least one pawl fixed at each end, to engage with the toothed wheel and with the ratchet respectively. The pawl on the spool side is arranged to be weaker than the other pawl so as to shear under a predetermined force to allow the spool to rotate and the torsion bar to twist.

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Maryport, United Kingdom

Joseph Patrick Harte